ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Russian jihadism by introducing the historical perspective: jihad has a long history in the North Caucasus. In particular, the jihad movement of the first half of the nineteenth century is generally portrayed as “Muridism”, that is, as having the Sufi brotherhood of the Naqshbandiyya khalidiyya as its backbone. Modern jihad, in contrast, is depicted as Salafi in nature, and thus as anti-Sufi; and in fact, today the Naqshbandiyya khalidiyya is a backbone of the Russian state, and dominates the Muftiate of Daghestan. Rasulov first studied at a college of physics and mathematics and then moved to learning construction at a technical college. While building his own version of the past, Rasulov found himself in the midst of the Russian intellectual tradition. Rasulov appeared to be quite a Russian intellectual in his language and in his quest to prove continuity with the legendary past of the region.
